The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday announced that ₹ 2,000 currency notes are being withdrawn from circulation. In a release, the central bank said that this is being done under its “Clean Note Policy”.
The RBI said that ₹ 2,000 note will continue to remain a legal tender, which means they will be accepted if offered in payment of a debt. The bank also announced time limit to take the note off circulation. It asked people to exchange them at banks by September 30.
The window to exchange ₹ 2,000 notes will open on May 23, since the RBI wants to give banks time to make preparatory arrangements. The facility to exchange ₹ 2,000 notes will also be available at 19 regional offices of RBI.
There is a cap on the amount of ₹ 2,000 bank notes that can be exchanged. As per the RBI release, people can exchange up to a limit of ₹ 20,000 at a time. They can also approach a Business Correspondent (BC), an extended arm of a bank branch who provides financial and banking services in unbanked and underbanked areas. The limit in this case is ₹ 4,000 per day.
It is also not necessary for a person to be a customer of the bank to exchange soon-to-be-discontinued currency. A non-account holder can exchange ₹ 2,000 banknotes up to a limit of ₹ 20,000 at a time at any bank branch.
The RBI clarified that people don’t have to pay any fee to avail the exchange facility. Further, banks have been instructed to make arrangements to reduce inconvenience for the senior citizens and persons with disabilities who wish to exchange or deposit ₹ 2,000 banknotes.
